Coaxial electrical connectors, which have a cylindrical outer conductor and a center conductor equipped with a shaft-like contact portion provided along its axis, have both conductors secured in place using an insulator. With connectors recently becoming more compact and the above-mentioned center conductors becoming extremely small, such connectors, as well as their manufacturing method, require in-depth examination.
For instance, a proposal regarding such coaxial electrical connectors and their manufacturing method has been presented in Patent Document 1.
In Patent Document 1, which makes use of a plate-shaped blank with a thickness equal to or greater than the length of a shaft-like contact portion provided in a center conductor, the periphery of the location that is used as the contact portion is swaged in the through-thickness direction to thereby reduce its thickness, and the section remaining in the above-mentioned location is used as the contact portion. If the thickness of the plate-shaped blank of stock material is equal to the length of said contact portion, the blank is not subjected to any swaging or other processing, and if the thickness of the plate-shaped blank of stock material is greater than the length of the contact portion, the blank is swaged to the length of the contact portion.
Since the section of reduced thickness on the periphery of the contact portion extends and expands in a direction perpendicular thereto, that is, in a direction parallel to the major surfaces by the amount of swaging in the through-thickness direction, after the swaging process, it is subjected to punching to produce predetermined dimensions and shape, thereby obtaining a center conductor.